Be Excellent To Each Other

Blackheath Common? What, like - out in the middle of the Heath?

Blackheath Common? What, like - out in the middle of the Heath?

If one of those things is ever fired, either in anger or by accident, it'll shower white-hot supersonic shrapnel across the extremely crowded residential heart of a city.

It's a good thing I'm a novelist who dabbles in technothrillers, not a terrorist. If I was a terrorist I'd be licking my lips, trying to work out how to trigger a missile launch. Using a motor-powered model aircraft, free flight design (no radio controls to jam) aimed vaguely towards the Olympic stadium, with a nice radio beacon or some sort of infra-red source (a flare, perhaps) on its tail to make it easy to track? These missiles will be the close-in option, because we know the RAF will already be flying combat air patrols over London; they won't have much time to evaluate threats or respond intelligently. So launch from the back of a panel van, like the IRA mortar attacks on places like Heathrow or 10 Downing Street. The twist in the scheme would be to aim past the missile launchers along a vector that would attract a hail of hypervelocity missile launches in the direction of, say, a DLR station at rush hour.

They should probably sack all the army chiefs, police and the security services with all their analysts and put novelists who dabble in techno-thrillers in charge of the arrangements.

They should probably sack all the army chiefs, police and the security services with all their analysts and put novelists who dabble in techno-thrillers in charge of the arrangements.

Anyway, the solution is now clear: ban all vans from London, just in case they're secretly hiding a homemade unguided drone/missile lure.

(I'm sorry, I just can't take this nonsense seriously? Bloody Olympics; apparently all about "bringing people together in the fellowship of sport" or whatever - but we need batteries of unfeasibly complex and expensive missiles to keep stray airliners out of the sand pits).

Wouldn't surprise me!

(Oh, and incidentally it would be illegal for me to say this if I happened to live in London or my blog was hosted in England—the enabling laws for the Olympics override our basic civil rights, including free speech. Luckily I'm north of the border in a country that remains semi-free. But if a future independent Scotland even thinks about bidding to host the Olympics, you bet I'll be organizing street marches in opposition ...)

put novelists who dabble in techno-thrillers in charge of the arrangements.

Is any of that even vaguely true? Man appears to be the UK version of a freeper headcase.

They're not very big missiles, so there wouldn't be very much white-hot, high-speed shrapnel.

Squirt was probably referencing this, from the same blog post:


Is any of that even vaguely true? Man appears to be the UK version of a freeper headcase.

Oh, he's pretty nuts, indeed. But that doesn't make his suggestion any less potentially cunning a way for terrorists to ju-jitsu the security forces.

Granted. But, on the whole, any amount of white-hot, high-speed shrapnel impacting my cornflakes as I eat breakfast is more than I'd prefer to see.

Also, Stross has one important advantage over Stu when it comes to frothy proclamations of Scottish independence -- Stross didn't move to England 20 years ago...

Heh, indeed. Don't get me started on that one.

O RLY? Should we dismiss any of your opinions about cars if you don't own one of them, then?

While I do disagree with a lot of what Stu says, I'm not of the opinion he has to live in Scotland to care about it.

I'd be interested to see if he'd move back if it did become independent, though.

I'd say them to his face, on his site...

...

...

Also, Stross has one important advantage over Sean Connery when it comes to frothy proclamations of Scottish independence

Squirt was probably referencing this, from the same blog post:


Is any of that even vaguely true? Man appears to be the UK version of a freeper headcase.

You've lost me mate.

I was making a joke about the phrases "to his face" and "on his site" being in the same sentence.

Thinking about it, I doubt I'd know him if he crashed into me.

Here we go again, one mention of Stu, and all the jokes come out. Its been fucking years.

FTFY

Here we go again, one mention of Stu, and all the jokes come out. Its been fucking years.

Well, if James Bond has taught me anything, it is always your missiles/helicopter/nuclear sub which is used against you, so I can only hope these are fakes.

Also, I did like that they would be guarded, by unarmed guards. Good plan.

I think I saw on the blackheath discussions that the military wouldn't be armed, but that the police guarding the military would be. My first thought is that we have a rule that says the military can only be armed in the uk in certain specific circumstances.

It's been exactly the same length of time since you last whined about it too.

Yeah, so the MOD is placing caches of surface-to-air missiles in London, with unarmed squaddies in attendance, and is planning to fly jets over them. Okay, nothing could go wrong there.

I'm glad I don't live in those apartments.

Fun as firing a shoulder mounted surface to air missile into your opponent's face is on Call of Duty, I feel that it might backfire somewhat in real life.

They can all take a running jump.